It’s funny how deeply you can appreciate a song when you actually try to play it yourself. Recently, after hearing two different bands, Ahab and Manran, cover ‘Wagon Wheel’ at Heb Celt Fest, and then seeing my daughter share a link to the Old Crow Medicine Show (OCMS) original, raving about it with her friends, I had to pick up my guitar. This sparked some thoughts on why “Wagon Wheel The Song” resonates so strongly with so many people.
Before diving in, a confession: I completely missed the Bob Dylan connection until recently. I own Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid outtakes, including ‘Rock Me Mama’ on Genuine Bootleg Series Disc Two. Thanks to YouTube, you can easily listen to it. The chorus is there, just slightly reordered with ‘wind and the rain’ coming first, and some very rough verses. It lacks the catchy rhythm and energy, especially the iconic fiddle part that defines the OCMS version of “wagon wheel the song”.
It was Ketch Secor of OCMS who took Dylan’s raw idea and transformed it into something truly special. He added three verses filled with vivid, almost autobiographical imagery. Secor, originally from Virginia, went to college in New Hampshire and upstate New York before forming Old Crow Medicine Show and settling in North Carolina. This journey heavily influences the narrative of “wagon wheel the song”.
Let’s break down the story “wagon wheel the song” tells. The first verse immediately sets the scene:
Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I’m thumbing my way into North Caroline
Staring up the road, pray to God
I see headlights.
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours,
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I’m a-hoping for Raleigh,
I can see my baby tonight.
This paints a picture of a long journey, likely six or seven hundred miles, with the uncertainty of hitchhiking, especially as night falls. The detail of “staring up the road, pray to God / I see headlights” is incredibly visual, capturing the desperation and hope of a traveler. The “bouquet of dogwood flowers” hints at a romantic purpose for this arduous trip, a feeling seemingly confirmed by the chorus, though dogwood is simply a common local flower, native to the southeastern United States.
Then comes the chorus of “wagon wheel the song”, instantly recognizable and deeply catchy:
So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey, mama rock me.
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey, mama rock me.
This chorus draws heavily on classic blues imagery. “Wind,” “rain,” and “south-bound trains” are staples in traditional songs, evoking feelings of travel, hardship, and longing. Dylan’s unique twist is replacing the traditional blues phrase “roll me like a wagon wheel” with “rock.” While wagon wheels don’t actually rock, it’s a perfect fit for a rock and roll era song. Another Dylan touch is the drawn-out, yearning “heyyyyy,” fading down a semitone with the chord change. It’s simple, yet undeniably essential to the song’s emotional core and catchiness that makes “wagon wheel the song” so popular.
The second verse of “wagon wheel the song” reveals the singer’s origins and motivations:
Running from the cold up in New England,
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time stringband.
My baby plays the guitar,
I pick a banjo now.
Oh, the north country winters keep a-getting me now.
Lost my money playing poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain’t a-turning back
To living that old life no more.
This verse takes an interesting turn, revealing that “wagon wheel the song” is not just a simple love song. While his “baby” might be waiting in Raleigh, his reasons for traveling are more complex. He’s escaping the harsh New England winters, pursuing his musical passion, and fleeing a life of poker losses and financial hardship. Secor’s technique of packing extra syllables into the second lines of each stanza creates a sense of urgency and momentum. The final lines emphasize a resolute decision for change – this journey is about more than just reaching Raleigh; it’s about transforming his life, a core theme within “wagon wheel the song”.
Verse three of “wagon wheel the song” takes a slightly more ambiguous turn:
Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly,
Had a nice long toke.
But he’s a headed west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee.
And I gotta get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby calling my name
And I know that she’s the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free.
He’s now in Virginia, walking south from Roanoke. He catches a ride with a trucker, but the truck is heading in the wrong direction, towards Tennessee via the Cumberland Gap. Suddenly, a burst of romance – “she’s the only one” – is immediately followed by the puzzling lines: “If I die in Raleigh / At least I will die free.” This raises questions: Who suggested he might die? What “slavery” is he escaping? Within the context of “wagon wheel the song”, it serves as a rousing and somewhat dramatic conclusion to his journey, contrasting with the earlier, more grounded verses.
One interpretation, perhaps not intended by the writer, is that by heading towards Raleigh instead of Nashville (via Johnson City and the Cumberland Gap), he’s consciously rejecting the lure of commercial music success in “Music City.” Is he turning down the path that the “Philly trucker,” perhaps representing a more conventional or commercial route, would take him? Is choosing Raleigh, and perhaps a less mainstream musical path, his way of staying “free,” even if it means a less certain career? This adds another layer to the meaning of “wagon wheel the song”.
Of course, in reality, Old Crow Medicine Show did move to Nashville and have thrived there. But this slight ambiguity and open-ended interpretation are part of what makes “wagon wheel the song” so compelling. It’s a fantastic song, leaving you pondering not just the literal journey, but the underlying choices and desires that fuel it.
